I am leaving home, and going home.

Goodbye curry. Hello cold sandwiches.
Goodbye cricket. Hello hockey.
Goodbye rupees. Hello dollars.
Goodbye modest women. Hello swim suit models.
Goodbye Bollywood. Hello Hollywood.
Goodbye lessons learned. Hello application.
Goodbye new family and friends. Hello family and friends.
Goodbye chai. Hello black coffee.
Goodbye oil. Hello boiled and baked.
Goodbye simple living. Hello American living.
Goodbye Hindi and Marathi. Hello English y espanol.
Goodbye summer. Hello senior year.
Goodbye beautiful people. Hello beautiful people.

Goodbye India, see you soon.
Hello America, it's been awhile.

Traveling alone.

Traveling alone.
At first I questioned my call from God to come to India. I questioned Him on everything that comes with traveling: finances, time, language barriers, living accommodations, is it God calling me to India or is it just me wanting to go to India. Not on traveling alone though. This question did not arise until I actually started my trip.

Traveling alone.
Not to point out the obvious or anything but you spend a lot of time...alone when you are traveling alone. Airplane, layovers, waiting for an English conversation, lack of social life...

Traveling alone.
Because I'm only one many things are easier. My schedule is up to me, more food for me, accommodating a single guest is easier on hosts, I get more time to debrief on personal experiences.

Traveling alone.
It means that when you see something horrific you have to hold it in because it is only horrific to you. When you want to laugh at silly cultural differences you are the only one laughing. A pun is hard to translate so you hold them in.

Traveling alone.
Eleven weeks of traveling alone is not a piece of cake. I am unsure if I would have come to India knowing that some days it hurt to be alone.

Traveling alone.
God needed me to travel like this. He needed me to be singled out from all of my comforts. By having me travel alone God has been able to pour Himself into my life without me being bombarded with my weaknesses at home. And God has placed many wonderful people along my path these last ten weeks to care for me and guide me. He needed me to believe that I am traveling alone so I could learn maybe the most important lesson of this trip.

That lesson being, although it may seem as if I'm traveling alone, I'm not.
I would be a fool to go anywhere alone. I would be a fool to believe that God is not with me in every breath that I take. I would have been a fool to have not listened to God's call because I thought it would mean I would have to be alone in all my experiences.

When God calls you, you go. Whether it is only you, or you and your best friend, twelve strangers or forty strangers. You go, because you are never traveling alone.

Hannah Joy.

I have sunshine, on a cloudy day.

Please excuse my lack of updating.

All is still well here. Everyday I enjoy more more and everday I experience something new.

India has a funny way of highlighting my weird quirks. Animals for example. I find so much joy in animals. (Shout out to Darby and Rivers...my dogs at home.) And oh, there is a lot of joy to be had in watching animals in India. The other day I had to weave in and out of about two dozen /rams along a motorbike path. I was so afraid of making noise or touching one of them but at the same time I kept laughing. All I could picture was this scene in America and how outlandish it would have been. And here? Just another day.

I was sitting in the classroom at the slum yesterday waiting for students to come and I watched a goat patiently watch a fried corn-on-the-cob  food cart. After about ten minutes he made his attack and got away with a prize in his mouth!! He didn't just run away he sort of jumped with glee in every trot. I was proud of him and again just smiled because I knew that it was one of those "only in India" moments.

When it starts to get dark out the bats come out. Yes, there are bats in America but I hardly see them in Kansas or Chicago. So it's a pleasure to see a bat sweeping across the dark blue sky.

Enough about animals.

I'm still loving teaching the kids in the slum (Ramtedki). The numbers vary every day. One day last week we barely had ten kids and some days we have had up to thirty. Most of them are working. Either for money outside of the slum or doing house work with their moms. Sometimes you can see them dozing off because they are so exhausted. Other times they all have so much energy you can't get them to sit down for two minutes. I'm a familiar face there now too. The women all great me and the children come running up calling out "Dee-Dee!" (big sister in Hindi.) They all wish me a good afternoon and as of recently they learned how to reply to my question of "How are you?" with "I am fine" or "I am happpy", sometimes I even get "I am not hungry." (That's the one I'm most happy to hear.)

Last week we had three sewing machines moved into the CSW Rehabilitation House. The women will learn how to make simple dress/blouse designs and cloth bags. A couple weeks ago we had a week long program with another women's project here in Pune where everyday a group of women all gathered at the CSW House and learned to make different kinds of paper bags and perfume. They already have an order for 1000 bags! The house will also be recieving a vapour machine within the next two weeks. (Vapours are used for the bread in the Holy Communion.) A great effort was put forth to get this machine and there is a lot of excitement about it. 

HCC works in a very unique and effective way. They do not hand out money. Simple money handouts are too temporary for the needs that need to met. HCC provides training and the basic resources for the people to get on their feet. Rather than just letting the women live in the CSW House until it is time for them to move on, HCC is preparing them for a new career. So the time is right, the women can move out be self-sufficient and strong. 

A few weeks ago my friend Rajesh did my henna:

I can hardly believe that I only have three weeks left until I'm back to dancing like mad with Erin, having fika with Kaj and enjoying my mom's cooking  for two weeks... AND moving into a new house with five of the most awesome girls in the world!

I can hardly believe that I only have three weeks left until I won't get to go to the slum every day, I won't be enjoying the fellowship of the CSW women and I won't be eating Indian food three times a day. 

Lets just say I'm teetering in the middle of being ready to go home and not ready to go home.

Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart.

Proverbs 3:3

Hannah Joy.

P.S. Mosquitoes love me here just as much as they love me in the States. Eck.